The JobSeeker rate: why Australia's unemployment payment is still below the poverty line

What is JobSeeker, and what does it actually pay?

JobSeeker is Australia's main income support payment for working-age adults who are unemployed and looking for work. As of 2025, the base rate sits at approximately $778 per fortnight - that's roughly $56 per day - for a single person with no dependants.

To put that in perspective, the Melbourne Institute's poverty line for a single adult is estimated at around $80–$90 per day. The ACOSS (Australian Council of Social Service) poverty line, set at 50% of median income, puts the figure even higher. By almost every accepted measure, JobSeeker falls well short of what it takes to avoid poverty in Australia.

This isn't a new problem. The base rate of Newstart - JobSeeker's predecessor - was frozen in real terms for nearly 25 years before a modest $50 per fortnight increase was finally made in 2021 under the Morrison government. That increase was welcomed, but economists and welfare groups were quick to point out it was far from enough.

Who does this affect?

This isn't a small or invisible group of people. At any given time, roughly 600,000 to 900,000 Australians are receiving JobSeeker. They include:

• People who have recently lost their jobs and are actively searching for new work
• Individuals with partial disabilities or health conditions who don't qualify for the Disability Support Pension
• Older Australians aged 55–67 who face structural barriers to re-employment
• People in regional areas where job markets are thin
• Carers who can only work part-time

The idea that JobSeeker recipients are primarily young people who could easily find work if they tried harder is not supported by the data. A significant proportion of recipients have been on the payment for more than 12 months, and many face genuine barriers - health, location, age discrimination, or simply a local labour market that doesn't have enough jobs.

The cost of living reality

Consider what $778 per fortnight looks like against actual expenses in 2025:

The numbers simply don't add up. People on JobSeeker are routinely forced to choose between paying rent and buying food. Many are couch-surfing, skipping meals, or going without medication. This is not hypothetical hardship - it's the documented reality, backed by consistent research from organisations like ACOSS, the Brotherhood of St Laurence, and the Grattan Institute.

So why hasn't it been fixed?

This is where it gets politically uncomfortable.

The Coalition's record on this is straightforward: for most of the past decade, they resisted meaningful increases, arguing that higher payments would reduce the incentive to find work. The evidence for this claim is weak - most labour economists agree that at such low payment levels, the "disincentive" effect is negligible. What the low rate does achieve is keeping the budget cost down and appealing to a voter base that views welfare recipients with suspicion.

Labor's record is not much better. Despite years in opposition calling for a raise, the Albanese government has delivered only modest incremental increases since taking office in 2022 - well below what welfare groups, economists, and even some business groups have recommended. The 2023 and 2024 budgets both passed without the substantial reform advocates had hoped for. Labor appears reluctant to be seen as the party that made welfare "too generous," fearful of political backlash from swinging voters in outer-suburban electorates.

In short: both major parties have calculated that the political cost of raising JobSeeker outweighs the benefit. The people who receive it tend to vote at lower rates, have less political organisation, and are easy to stigmatise in tabloid media. The people who pay for it - taxpayers - have been successfully convinced to see it as a cost rather than an investment.

Meanwhile, a 2020 Parliamentary Budget Office analysis found that a $75 per day rate would cost the budget approximately $10 billion per year - significant, but comparable to the cost of franking credit refunds or negative gearing concessions, policies that predominantly benefit wealthier Australians and which neither major party has touched.

What does the evidence say should happen?

There is rare consensus across the political spectrum among economists, social researchers, and welfare experts:

• Raise the rate to at least $75–$80 per day as an immediate floor
• Index it to wages or median income, not just CPI, so it doesn't fall behind living standards again
• Reduce the compliance burden - mutual obligation requirements currently cost significant administrative resources while delivering limited employment outcomes
• Invest in training and job placement programs that actually work, rather than punitive activity requirements

Even the Business Council of Australia has at times supported a rate increase, recognising that people in poverty have less capacity to participate in the economy as consumers.

This is exactly why direct democracy matters

Here's the fundamental problem: when you ask Australians directly whether people on unemployment benefits should be able to afford rent and food, the answer is almost universally yes. Polls consistently show majority support for raising JobSeeker to a liveable rate.

But that public preference never makes it into policy - because the two parties that dominate parliament have each calculated that protecting this status quo serves their political interests better than fixing it.

Direct democracy changes that equation entirely. When members of the public have a genuine vote on policy - not just on which party to hand power to every three years - the gap between what people actually want and what government delivers gets a lot harder to hide.

At Direct Democracy, our members vote directly on policy questions like this one. Our elected representatives don't follow party lines or donor interests - they follow your instructions.

If you think hundreds of thousands of Australians shouldn't have to choose between rent and food, you shouldn't have to hope a major party eventually agrees with you. You should have a direct say.

Take our policy quiz to see where you stand on JobSeeker and dozens of other issues - and find out if Direct Democracy reflects your values. Join us at [directdemocracy.com.au](https://directdemocracy.com.au) and be part of building a political system that actually listens.